My Navy Dad, rest his salty soul, was a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy, the heraldry of which proudly proclaims Acta Non Verba: Deeds, Not Words.
On June 6, the Whitefish City Council sent a letter to the Flathead County Commission, demanding the removal of two Flathead County Planning Board members for making “strident comments with foul language.”
How foul? Not very, compared to the decade-plus of foul deeds inflicted by the city of Whitefish upon the peasant classes unfortunate enough to inhabit The Doughnut About to Eat Whitefish.
The doughnut was spawned in 2005, ostensibly to calm the political storms generated by Whitefish-area zoning conflicts. Many hoped (in vain) that trading joint (and contentious) city-county oversight of a 4.5 mile belt surrounding Whitefish in exchange for “sole power” in a two-mile “doughnut” would serve all interests.
Trouble was, thanks in large part to advice from Whitefish City Attorney John Phelps, unlike the old “interlocal,” the new “doughnut agreement” had no exit clause — basically a marriage in which a shafted spouse can’t get a divorce.
Well, we all know how Whitefish chose to exercise its “sole power,” in a manner completely unaccountable to the peasantry. One example: the Critical Areas Ordinance — a travesty that wound up costing the city $440,000 in court the fall of 2009.
The peasants were in open rebellion before then, organizing “People of the Doughnut” in spring 2008 and filing suit. Flathead commissioners voted “out,” doughnut creator Gary Hall was voted out, the city sued to keep the county in, and a new agreement (which allowed unilateral withdrawal) was reached in 2010.
Then Whitefish voters (unilaterally, as usual, of course) rejected that agreement two to one. The court war reignited until 2014, when the Montana Supreme Court ruled Whitefish’s vote void and the county regained planning control of the doughnut.
Whitefish city officials have since fought a fading rearguard action to protect their influence and agenda. The process has not gone well for the city, deservedly so.
So, on May 10, the planning board was wrapping up the last two items regarding the Highway 93 corridor south of Whitefish city limits. Things got a little warmer than usual when board member Greg Stevens uttered a four-letter slang term for Satan’s Paradise in a comment otherwise completely true, while fellow board member Rita Hall alluded to “Nazis.” Twice — which, given events this winter, unsurprisingly “triggered” the council’s overwrought yet fascinating letter.
I say overwrought because the past 12 long years have been, yep, complete HECK for those poor schlubs caught up in the doughnut battle. What would your life be if your rights, especially the right to control your largest personal investment, your very future security, were controlled by petty tyrants you aren’t allowed to vote for or against? HECK doesn’t do the reality justice.
I concede Mrs. Hall’s word choice was poor. There are many substitutes that fit within the bounds of “civil dialogue” while accurately conveying concept. For example, if Mrs. Hall had referred to the Whitefish Politburo? Duma? Nomenklatura? Supreme Soviet?
My favorite? Bullsheviks! Zdorovo, da?
As for fascinating, the city letter (about which I can find no council minutes about the open meeting during which this very public document was discussed and approved) contains some of the most hypocritical word salad I’ve ever read.
Whitefish feels it is not “afforded the same respect and consideration that any County resident” deserves. Oh, like the respect that Whitefish afforded no county resident whatsoever from 2005 until 2014? The city complains its “attempt to find a mutually acceptable solution” is being “summarily denied,” notwithstanding the years that Flathead County wasted trying to do precisely that.
Now the city wonders why its representatives detect a certain “animus, bias and prejudice” coming its way, stymied in trying to “cultivate a positive and mutually-respectful relationship”? Kids, did you honestly try any of the things you’re now complaining about, ever, between 2005 and 2011?
If so, then write us all a nice letter. Before you start, however, please remember: The most “respectful” words mean nothing if your deeds show disrespect. Deeds, not words, have always mattered most.